Bancor crypto exchange hacked; $12 million in ethereum stolen

Decentralized cryptocurrency platform Bancor stopped all the operations on the platform on July 9th for investigating the security breach. According to reports, the security breach involves $12 million.

Bancor notified its users through their official Twitter handle that the operations were halted for investigating the security breach before releasing a statement. Bancor mentioned in the statement that they are “committing every resource to resolving it”. The details of the breach are still being investigated. However, the things which are confirmed are, a wallet used to upgrade some smart contracts was compromised. The wallet was then used to withdraw Ethereum token (ETH) worth $12.5 million from BNT smart contract. The hack came as a shock not only to the users but also to everyone else in the crypto-verse. In fact, Litecoin founder, Charlie Lee even took a dig at the ‘decentralized’ wallet.

The tweet says,

“This morning (CEST) Bancor experienced a security breach. No user wallets were compromised, To complete the investigation, we have moved to maintenance and will be releasing a more detailed report shortly. We look forward to being back online as soon as possible.”

This morning (CEST) Bancor experienced a security breach. No user wallets were compromised. To complete the investigation, we have moved to maintenance and will be releasing a more detailed report shortly. We look forward to being back online as soon as possible.

The funds of users are not affected since exchange stored cryptocurrency in cold wallets instead of hot wallets or otherwise on their behalf.

Some of the tokens were exchanged via instant conversion service Changelly by the malicious activity. CEO of the platform Konstantin Gladych revealed, “Part of the stolen tokens were exchanged via Changelly, Afterwards the tokens were frozen by the exchange’s Foundation in our contract. Now we are helping track the stolen funds.”

People who are aware of the issue reported that exchange’s native token BNT was among the stolen tokens. But since BNT is their native token they were able to freeze it. Around 25,000 Ethereum (ETH) ($12.2 mln) and 300,000 Pundi X (NPXS) ($1,200) were stolen. Bancor with the help of other exchanges is trying to track the stolen tokens.